Outpatient Care
by ReavansMask
Summary: With Liara's help, Shepard managed to come to terms with the modifications Cerberus made to her body. The Illusive Man has never been one to take defeat lying down though, and now, even as the Reapers arrive, Shepard must race to save her lover from his machinations. Sequel to "Non-Elective Surgery." Please read all warnings.
1. Chapter 1

**So, Non-Elective Surgery was totally intended to be a random smut shot, but the response to it was so positive that I decided to do a sequel. This one seems to have evolved more of a plot but will still have plenty of sex to go along with it. Contains futanari, so if this isn't your thing, feel free to take a pass. Otherwise, enjoy.**

* * *

As Miranda Lawson entered the cavernous office, a shiver of fear ran through her perfect body. The rational part of her mind catalogued the signs: the speeding up of her pulse, the erect hair along her skin, the shortness in her breath. As best she could, she brought them under control, but given the circumstances, it was understandable that she'd be afraid.

Reporting to the Illusive Man was an intimidating enough experience in and of itself, but most of the time when she paid her boss a visit; she had some new success to report. Not this time. This time, the entire _Normandy_ project had blown up in her face and Miranda wasn't certain what would be left of her career, to say nothing of her life, when and if she exited his office.

The Illusive Man was seated in his usual chair, a cigarette between his fingers, its flame providing one of the few bits of illumination in the dim room. As Miranda approached, he took a long, slow drag, letting both smoke and anticipation hang in the air while the brunette walked towards him, not speaking until she had almost closed the distance between them.

"Operative Lawson." His voice was measured and calm. If he was angry, he wasn't letting it show just yet.

"Yes, sir." She tried to keep her own voice level as well. He had no tolerance for weakness. "How can I be of service to you?"

"I've been reviewing your report on the Shepard situation but I wanted to get your assessment of the mission in person. How would you rate its outcome?"

She had to tread carefully here, to remind the Illusive Man that she hadn't failed entirely while not angering him by downplaying what had gone wrong. "Well, sir, it was successful in some aspects, less so in others. We were able to destroy the Collector Base and escape with only the losses of Zaeed Massani and the Geth platform known as Legion. Given the opposition we faced and the lack of reliable intelligence we had regarding the target beforehand, that has to be considered a significant accomplishment."

"Certainly." He wasn't denying her success, but he wasn't willing to dwell on it either. "Now, perhaps you'd care to elaborate on your failures."

"Obviously, the fact that Shepard has left our service and taken the _Normandy_ with her represents a significant set-back. If you will permit me to say so, sir, it may have been a mistake to have included so many non-Cerberus elements in the crew. When she made her move, Operative Taylor and the other loyal elements on board the ship had no chance to resist her superior forces."

The Illusive Man's face tightened and the anger that he had clearly been holding back started to boil towards the surface. "It was not my intention that it would be necessary to resist her by force, Operative. According to the mission parameters, you and the people under your command were supposed to secure her loyalty. It is a task that you abjectly failed at, and I am curious as to why you think that is."

Miranda started to reply, but something in the Illusive Man's gaze stopped her. Instead, she stood silently at attention as he ran his cold, blue eyes up and down her flawless form. It was one he was intimately familiar with. Miranda had had sex with him several times in the past and though she had enjoyed the experiences, she wasn't naïve enough to think that her body gave her a hold on him. His true passions ran deeper and darker than mere physical gratification and now, there was no lust in his gaze, just a hard appraisal of her body.

He tented his fingers. "Clearly, you haven't suffered any disfiguring injuries since the last time you were here."

She wasn't certain what he was getting at. "No, sir. I would have mentioned them in my reports if I had."

"Of course you would have." He took a drag on his cigarette. "You are obedient, if nothing else."

She bristled at the condescension implicit in his statement, but said nothing. She was on thin enough ice as it was; better to just go along with him for now.

"Then tell me why a woman blessed with your superb physical gifts failed to seduce someone possessed of the voracious appetites that Shepard has."

In spite of her best efforts to control her reaction, Miranda swallowed hard, the motion clearly visible on her bare throat. "I'm not sure what I can tell you, sir, that isn't already in the report. Shepard proved more stubborn than we had anticipated. She was clearly attracted to a number of the women present on-board the _Normandy_, but in spite of that interest, she was able to resist long enough for other circumstances to intervene." Other circumstances. That bloody asari. She cursed silently at the thought of her.

"Indeed," he agreed. "Of course, yours was not the only failure associated with this mission." The Illusive Man's hand flicked over a control and behind him, a vid screen switched on. The images stood out clearly in the darkness and Miranda saw a team of Cerberus doctors gathered around a table on which lay a naked woman covered in tubes and other medical equipment, the devices enveloping her like a sinister cocoon. Miranda herself had been in such rooms countless times, but the woman laying there now was not Commander Shepard, but instead, Yeoman Kelly Chambers, lately of the _Normandy _SR-2.

"Like you, Miss Chambers had a simple assignment that she failed to complete and I was forced to terminate her existing contract. A temptress that fails to tempt isn't very useful to me." He took a final puff on his cigarette before crushing it out in the heavy, stone ashtray on his desk. "Still, that doesn't mean that I wasn't able to find another place for her here at Cerberus."

"Miss Chambers has become one of the volunteers for the Nemesis project." A doctor pressed a control and Kelly's supple body twitched and writhed, sweat dripping off of her flushed skin, but the woman remained eerily silent in spite of the excruciating pain she must have been in, restrained by some unseen force. "Sadly, the program is still in the beta stage and some discomfort to the subjects is inevitable."

Miranda fought down the urge to wretch. The bubbly yeoman had been a favorite of hers. She had even sampled her charms herself in order to confirm that they'd been sufficient to entice Shepard, and watching her reduced to a test subject was horrible enough, even without the implied threat that it could easily be Miranda suffering such a fate. Her only comfort was that she still clearly had another chance; if the Illusive Man had already decided to do that to her, she'd be on the table next to Kelly already, not watching the video of her suffering.

"Of course," he continued blithely, shutting off the screen, "Miss Chambers didn't have the track record of success that you do with this organization. After all, it was her failure to assess the depths of Shepard's attachment to the asari, Liara T'Soni, that helped land us in this predicament."

Liara T'Soni. When she had come to visit Shepard aboard the _Normandy_, Miranda had hoped that her visit would be just the thing to deliver the commander fully into her hands. Every time Shepard had spoken with the asari in the past, the Spectre had left the encounter more sexually frustrated than ever, more vulnerable to the temptations that Cerberus had to offer. She'd been near her breaking point already and one more push seemed like it might have done the trick.

Instead, everything that Miranda had spent years planning had unraveled in a single night. When Shepard reemerged after Liara spent the night in her cabin, Miranda had realized almost immediately that it was over. That damned suit rat Tali'Zorah had disabled the surveillance devices in the commander's cabin, but Miranda didn't need a vid to know what had happened between them. Gone was the mountain of accumulated frustration that Miranda had spent months carefully cultivating, replaced by a contented smile and a light spring in her step.

"Miss Chambers certainly did underestimate that relationship, sir. You may recall I presented you with the option of simply getting rid of the asari before we finished resurrecting Shepard in order to prevent such a complication from arising."

"And I rejected your suggestion. If Shepard suspected that we were behind Doctor T'Soni's death, it would have eliminated any possibility of winning her over to our cause. Now, though, it has become necessary to adjust our plans. The first step of course will be to remove the asari from her position as the new Shadow Broker. I have already set those plans in motion, but they are only the beginning of what we have to do. The details are waiting for you in your room."

She silently exhaled. "Thank you for the opportunity to correct this mistake, sir. I guarantee you I won't fail a second time."

"I would think that you won't, Operative Lawson." Miranda turned to leave, but before she made it more than halfway to the door, the Illusive Man stopped her with a final message. "Oh, and Miranda, in addition to the briefing packet, you should also find an updated report on your sister's new living situation on the Citadel. I thought you would be comforted to know that we are keeping extremely close tabs on her welfare. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her any more than your would."

* * *

Seven months later…

_Liara's naked body was pressed up against the glass of the door. As the Spectre thrust into her from behind, Liara cried out her pleasure, her hands gripping the shower bar to keep herself from falling over. Her pale blue skin, always smooth, was positively slippery from the water covering it, and as Shepard's hands ran over her lover's full hips and soft ass, she could feel herself approaching her breaking point. The warm wetness of the information broker's azure and the sight of her painfully hard cock, glistening with Liara's arousal, sliding in and out of it was pushing her beyond the edge of her self-control. _

_With one hand, she reached between her lover's legs, and her strong fingers found Liara's swollen clit, pressing against it as Shepard's cock pushed even deeper into her azure. Liara's eyes became dark pools and as the walls between their minds collapsed and Shepard felt her lover's blissful sense of fullness, it was too much. Clutching her beloved tightly against her body, she let go, jet after jet of her come filling Liara even as the asari fell into orgasm with her, bliss washing over both of them, reflecting back and forth…_

With a grunt of pleasure, Shepard came, her hand stroking a cock made slick by the combination of her pre-come and the water of the shower as she spilled her release into the drain. She sighed deeply with relief, but as the fog of her desire parted, she remembered where she really was. It had been six months since that night, since the last time Liara had come to visit her before she went to turn herself into the Alliance to answer for the tragedy at Bahak and warn them about the imminent arrival of the Reapers.

What a mistake that decision had been. Instead of heeding her warnings, those idiots had locked her up here in administrative limbo. For all the good she'd done on Earth, she might as well not have bothered. Maybe if she'd stayed out there, working with her beloved Shadow Broker, she could have done some good. Instead, she was wasting her time answering inane questions. For God's sake, some of her interrogators seemed to think she might still be with Cerberus.

Fat chance. As soon as she destroyed the Collector Base, she had told the Illusive Man just where he could cram his orders and unceremoniously kicked all of the Cerberus personnel off the ship at the nearest spaceport. Miranda, Jacob, Kelly, and much of the rest of the support staff had been ejected from the ship, though not without a few protests, most notably from Miranda. Screw her. After what she did to Shepard, she was lucky the commander had let her leave without a bullet in her head. How could they think she was still with Cerberus?!

With a cry of frustration, she slammed her palm into the tiled wall of the shower. The shock ran down her arm, and the pain helped her to clear her head a little bit. She took a deep breath, trying to control her anger. As brutally hard as it had been, she hadn't let Cerberus' modifications force her to violate her principles, and she wasn't going to let her captivity drive her to madness either. It was just so hard to feel useless, especially with the Reapers getting closer with each passing day.

Stepping out of the shower, she dried herself off with a plain, white towel before wrapping it around her nude body and heading back out into the bedroom of her living quarters. Lying down on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, trying to decide how to pass the rest of the day. Lately, the annoyance of her interrogation sessions had been replaced with simple boredom and she was getting pretty tired of spending her time jerking off and playing solitaire.

Pulling up her omni-tool, she prepared to look through the programs there for something to do only to realize that she had a new message. It was from the Alliance of course; they blocked all other communications and this one was marked urgent. "Meeting with Admiral Anderson at 0930," was all it said. She looked at the time: 0927. Shit. She'd been in the shower longer than she realized.

Tossing off the towel, she hastily dressed, throwing on a pair of underwear, pants, and her uniform shirt, fastening her belt just in time to hear the door buzzer sound. She opened it, revealing the solid form of David Anderson and his face told her all that she needed to know. In spite of the old soldier's disciplined facade, she could read the fear in his eyes easily enough. He opened his mouth to speak, but she already knew what he was going to say. The Reapers had come.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, what's so special about this bitch anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Miranda raised an eyebrow at the dark-skinned woman in front of her. As relieved as she'd been that the Illusive Man wasn't going to have her terminated, the months since her meeting with him had been filled with a long series of annoyances.

Right now, the chief among those annoyances was sitting next to her at the conference table wearing a tight black Cerberus uniform and an arrogant smirk. The operative she knew as Maya Brooks was ostensibly her second-in-command on this mission, but really, Miranda knew that she was there because the Illusive Man no longer trusted her to handle this assignment by herself.

Brooks, meanwhile, seemed to have doubts about the value of the whole enterprise. "I mean sure, Shepard's a skilled soldier," she explained, "But she's just one woman. Why is she worth all the trouble we're going through to get hold of her again?"

"I think if you had seen Shepard in action, you wouldn't be so quick to describe her as 'just a soldier,'" Miranda snorted, "But I still take your point. We don't fully understand it, but there's something special about her, something that even the Reapers recognize."

"You know how ridiculous that sounds? What makes you think the Reapers give a shit about Shepard?"

Bloody hell but she couldn't stand Brooks. The woman was a constant pain in the ass, always finding new ways to get under Miranda's skin, never accepting anything she was told. "Have you seen the file on the Collector attack on the first _Normandy_? It was not random. Shepard was the target. The Reapers, a species millions of years old that has destroyed countless civilizations, put out a hit on one person."

Brooks shrugged. "All right, if you say so. So we want her back on our team. But what about all this breeding nonsense? Why not just take a genetic sample from her and use it ourselves?" She gives Miranda a leering expression. "I bet you'd look good knocked up."

Miranda let that remark go by without comment. "Unfortunately, while I was able to alter Shepard's physiology so that she was capable of impregnating others, her new seed is relative unstable. It can't survive for any length of time outside of her body, meaning that we require a more hand's-on approach so to speak if we want her offspring."

Maya shook her head. "So you're saying that we're stuck on this assignment because your work on Shepard was substandard?"

With a snarl of frustration, Miranda stood, shoving her chair aside and grabbing Brooks by the shoulder. Maya tried to block her, but Miranda shoved her hand aside and slammed her subordinate against the white, metal wall of the conference room. Her forearm pressed against Brook's neck, and she could feel the fragile pulse of the woman's breath. It would be so easy to press just a little bit harder and crush her trachea, but that would be ill advised. Cerberus certainly gave their supervisors some leeway in dealing with troublesome subordinates, but if this "Brooks" was really the Illusive Man's new pet, killing her was out of the question for the time being.

"Now you listen closely to me," Miranda growled, her voice low and dangerous, "I know what you're doing on this project, but until the Illusive Man says otherwise, I am still in charge here." She increased the pressure slightly on Brooks' trachea. "And you will respect the chain of command."

She moved her arm back, but all she got from Brooks was more lip, her effort at intimidation clearly having failed. "And what if I don't?"

Miranda let Brooks go, but not without a final sneer. "Then you'll be reminded why you should." They'd been doing this dance for weeks now, and Miranda was nearing her breaking point. She just wasn't sure what she was going to do when she finally cracked but if she couldn't kill the woman, she supposed she'd just have to get creative.

* * *

Liara knew she should be getting more done, but over the last few months, she'd been having a surprisingly hard time concentrating on work. Intense horniness wasn't really a good excuse for not being able to focus on exploring the prothean archives here on Mars, but that didn't change the reality of her situation.

Before she had met Commander Shepard, Liara hadn't had any sexual experience outside of her own hand; she hadn't realized what she was missing out on. Shepard of course had changed all that, but after her lover had died, grief had overcome the asari's newly discovered desires. As much as she missed the intimacy they had shared, the woman she wanted to make love with had been gone and Liara hadn't had the heart to consider another partner.

Now it was different. Her body seemed to know that Shepard was alive and it craved the Spectre's touch more than anything, certainly more than the limited relief Liara could give herself. Most species found the pleasure achieved with a partner superior to that obtained by masturbating, but for the asari, the difference was especially sharp. While they could climax without the meld, it was simply not as satisfying absent the sharing of pleasure and love that the joining brought. Still, with Shepard being kept under house arrest on Earth by the Alliance, Liara had no choice but to make do as best she could.

A slim blue finger traced up her inner thigh, stroking over the especially sensitive scales that surrounded Liara's azure and clitoris. They were already slick, and when her finger ran over them, she murmured softly with pleasure. The Shadow Broker was desperate for more stimulation, and even though she knew that she couldn't get what she really wanted that way, she still couldn't bring herself to stop.

Her fingers pressed down against her scales, slowly making their way to her clit. When she finally arrived, a shock of pleasure ran through her body, and she closed her eyes, trying to imagine she was somewhere else. Liara traced small circles over the shaft of the clit, and as she did, the cramped little room the Alliance had given her on Mars started to fade away.

Instead, Liara was back on the _Normandy_, and the bed wasn't the narrow, hard thing she was really laying on, but the expansive, soft one in the captain's cabin of the SR-2. She dipped a single digit inside her azure, and for a moment, she could almost believe it was Shepard touching her. It was Shepard's practiced finger that probed inside her azure, Shepard who found the perfect spot along her inner walls to make her clench down around the digit.

Feeling her own wetness, Liara added a second finger and gasped at the increased fullness in her azure. As she stroked herself, she called to mind the image of Shepard's face in front of her, of her pale, freckled features framed by red locks of hair, of her green eyes burning with lust as she fingered the asari.

In her mind's eye, Liara looked down Shepard's beautiful, toned body, and saw her long cock throbbing with need between her legs. "Go on," Liara whispered, "I'm ready. I want you inside me." She pushed a third digit into herself, the tight entrance to her azure stretching around her fingers. She tried to imagine that it was Shepard's shaft filling her, and even though it didn't feel the same, when she ground her palm against her clit and started to thrust inside herself, she could almost imagine that she was making love with her commander.

The asari's other hand went to her breast, massing her stiff, blue nipple, and she bit down on her lip to stop herself from crying out and disturbing her neighbors in the adjoining rooms. Need, though, was overtaking her, and Liara sped up her thrusts, trying to imagine Shepard's weight on top of her, to feel the wet sensation of her tongue running along Liara's neck as they fucked. She moaned at the thought, no longer able to contain her pleasure, and with a low whisper of her lover's name, she peaked, her azure pulsing around her thrusting hand even as the fantasy faded.

She couldn't pretend anymore. Without the meld, without feeling Shepard's pleasure alongside her own as she climaxed, without her commander's love echoing in Liara's thoughts, the Shadow Broker knew that she was alone. Her shudders ceased and Liara wiped her hand clean before getting up from her bed and making her way back to her terminal. That hadn't been what she craved, but hopefully her solo session would buy her a little peace of mind to get some work done. She and the other researchers at the archives had begun to find hints of some kind of prothean device, a weapon on a scale Liara had never seen before, and despite the fact that the throbbing between her legs hadn't entirely subsided, she had to get back to work.

* * *

The burst from her Avenger went right into the yawning maw of the Reaper creature and blew out the back of its head in a spray of ichor. It toppled to the ground dead, joining the growing pile of such corpses on the ground in front of the Spectre. Unfortunately, what those things lacked in toughness they made up for in numbers and as she fell back behind the fallen chunk of concrete that was serving as makeshift cover, Shepard was starting to become concerned.

"Anderson!", she barked as her former CO emerged from cover long enough to put two pistol rounds into a Husk that had been rushing at his position behind a pile of rubble. "Where the hell is the _Normandy_?"

"Why?", he teased her, "You getting tired already, Shepard?"

"Not at all, sir." In spite of the horror surrounding them, a small part of her felt good about being back in action after months of being forced to wait and worry. With a practiced motion, she popped up, firing a concussive shot that knocked down a couple of Cannibals before she finished them off with assault rifle fire. "Just worried about the ammunition situation. Running a bit low over here. What about you?"

A shot from one of the creatures further away slammed against her shields and as the impact shock ran down her arm, she dropped out of their line of fine. "Suckers pack a punch, don't they?"

"Anderson!" When he didn't answer, she looked over to see two more Husks grappling with the admiral and with a primal battle cry, Shepard launched herself in his direction. Another blast from the Cannibals sent a wave of pain through her torso, but her shields held and she kept stride, crashing omni-blade first into one of the Husks, opening it from torso to neck. Anderson managed to force the other one off of him, throwing it to the ground before finishing it off with a headshot.

Shepard yanked him to the ground ahead of the expected Cannibal fire, but it never came. From high above, a wave of destruction fell in front of them as the _Normandy_ descended from the sky on the Reaper forces like a gleaming bird of prey.

She shouted, "Let's go," to Anderson, and the two of them dashed across the broken landscape together as a ramp lowered from the ship and Ashley appeared at the entrance to the shuttle bay.

"Welcome back, Shepard", Lt. Williams told her as she fired bursts from her assault rifle at the surviving enemy troops.

"Thanks." In spite of their past differences on Horizon, she was glad to see Ashley again, especially now.

"Shepard." She looked back to see that Anderson was paused on the other side of the gap leading to the _Normandy_'s ramp.

"Come on," she shouted. The situation was deteriorating rapidly and they needed to leave.

He shook his head. "I'm not going. You saw those men back there. There's a million more like them and they need a leader."

"We're in this fight together," she protested.

"It's a fight we can't win," he replied. "Not without help. We need every species, and all their ships, to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers. Talk to the Council. Convince them to help us."

She remained skeptical. When in the hell had the Council ever been any use? "What if they won't listen?"

"Then make them listen!", he insisted. "Now go, that's an order."

"I don't take orders from you anymore, remember?"

The admiral reached into his pocket and tossed a gleaming metal object at Shepard. She caught it, and when she looked into her palm, she saw that she held a fresh set of dog tags. "Consider yourself reinstated," he snapped. "Commander. You know what you have to do."

"I'll be back for you," she promised, "And I'll bring every fleet I can." She turned to board the _Normandy_, but not before adding more softly, "Good luck."

"You too, Shepard," he replied, throwing her a final salute as the ship started to ascend.

He was right about them needing help. As the _Normandy_ gained altitude, she could see more clearly the broader panorama of the destruction the Reapers were wrecking on Earth. Everywhere, buildings collapsed, ships burst into flames, and more people than she could possibly track or save fled for their lives. She had seen the visions of the Prothean extinction, had known what their enemy was capable of, but it wasn't the same as this. The world was coming to an end right in front of her eyes, and if she couldn't find some help, nothing anyone did here on Earth was going to make a damn bit of difference.

The Citadel was a good start; the Council's resources were essential if they were going to have a chance of surviving this war, but it wasn't going to be enough. This had happened before. The Reapers won. Every time they'd won. Sure, she'd stopped Sovereign from letting the galaxy be hit by surprise two years earlier, but that wasn't going to be enough of an advantage. Prothean technology had been more advanced than even the asari's, and they'd still fallen to the Reapers. They'd need more, but looking at the hell outside, she couldn't imagine what could be enough to turn the tide.

As she walked through the shuttle bay, Shepard shook her head. She couldn't think that way. They weren't dead yet, and until they were, she had to believe that there was hope. Besides, there were people depending on her to lead them, and if she didn't keep faith, neither would they.

People like James Vega. The burly soldier walked up behind her, his heavy boots echoing in the empty space, his head clearly filled with questions. "What the hell's going on? Where's Anderson?", he demanded. "Where're we going? Hey!"

She turned and replied simply, "We're leaving."

"Leaving?", he asked incredulously.

Ashley stepped over from one of the workbenches where she'd been adjusting her rifle. "What's going on?"

"Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel, get help for the fight," she told the two marines.

"Bullshit!", Vega exclaimed. "He wouldn't just order us to leave."

"He can see what's going on," she answered. "Without help, this war's already over.

"Than you can drop me off at the nearest depot," James insisted, "Because I'm not leaving.

Enough, she thought to herself. What she knew of James, she liked well enough, but right now his attitude was verging dangerously close to insubordination. "Stow it, Lieutenant," she snapped. "You don't want to go, we get it. But this isn't a democracy. We're going to the Citadel. You want out, you can catch a ride back from there."

He made a frustrated gesture and turned away, but before either of them could say more, a familiar voice broke in over the comm. "Commander."

"Joker?", she asked, relieved to discover that another of her old friends was there with them. "That you?"

"Alive and kicking," her pilot replied, "Got an emergency transmission from Admiral Hackett for you."

She was glad to hear the old admiral was still in the fight. So many had already fallen. "Patch it through."

Hackett's image appeared on the nearby video unit, but both his face and voice were blurred by static. "Shepard… sustained heavy losses… Reaper force was overwhelming… no way we can defeat them conventionally…"

"Anderson's already ordered me to the Citadel to talk to the Council," she informed him.

"First I need you to… Alliance outpost on Mars… Before we lose control of the system…"

She saluted. "Yes, sir." She suspected she'd be making her own decisions most of the time in this war, but there was something comforting about the chain of command in a terrible moment of uncertainty such as this.

Hackett continued. "Been researching the prothean archives… Doctor T'Soni… May have found a way to stop the Reapers… The only way to stop them… Contact soon… Hackett out."

The call disappeared from the screen, but Shepard remained standing in front of the comm unit, slack jawed. Ever since the Reaper attack started, she hadn't let herself think about where Liara was or what she might be doing, trying to stay focused on the task in front of her. Now, the woman she loved, the woman her heart (along with a few other body parts) ached for was almost within her reach, in danger, and might have some way to win this war. In her entire life, Shepard had never wanted to be anywhere so badly as she wanted to be on Mars right then.

* * *

**Hey, the author here with a few notes:**

**1) I'm using a generic fem-shep, but to write combat scenes, I needed her to have a class and I decided on Soldier.**

**2) The last section kept to canon in most places, which I'm normally a stickler for, but since Shepard's, ahem, modifications, trashed that, I made some other changes, notably dropping that stupid kid getting killed and Brooks and Miranda's different roles. More alterations will turn up on Mars.**

**3) The version of asari sexually I'm using here is slightly different than my normal headcanon, but I felt it fit this story better.**

**Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying the story and keep reading and reviewing.**


	3. Chapter 3

Two Days Ago…

The first indication Maya Brooks had that something was wrong was the darkness in her cabin. Before she could wonder what why the lights hadn't turned on though, one of her wrists was grabbed, a strong hand bending it behind her back.

"Hello, Maya." Miranda's voice was low, practically a growl.

"What do you want?", Brooks hissed. Miranda didn't frighten her. The woman couldn't kill her and they both knew it.

"We're going to be on Mars in two days." Miranda twisted Brook's wrist slightly, eliciting a satisfying yelp from her nemesis. "And this mission is going to be a great deal more difficult than you seem to realize. Getting in past the Alliance, retrieving the data, capturing the asari, and getting out of the system before the Reapers block our access to the relay is not going to be a simple task."

Instead of replying, Brooks twisted her lithe body, using her left leg to sweep out Miranda's feet. The operative released her grip as she fell and Brooks spun around and dropped on top of her. She positioned herself on the taller woman's torso, and before Miranda could stop her, Brooks had hold of her wrists. "I know your plan, Lawson. Don't you worry your vapid little head any; I'll be ready for any surprises. As you can see, I always am."

Ignoring the smaller woman's taunts, Miranda wrenched one of her legs far enough free to bring it up and kick Brooks in the back. While she was distracted, the operative got her arms loose and before Maya could try and reestablish her grip, Miranda summoned a light biotic pulse that caught her clean in the face.

"You're good," Miranda said coldly, turning the lights she had overridden on with a gesture. "I'll give you that. But you underestimate your opponents and you don't play well with others, neither of which is helpful to this mission."

Though Maya's head was swimming, through the haze, she could feel Miranda's hand running up and down her tight, black uniform, appraising her curves. All right, she thought to herself, it that's where Miranda was taking things, then fine, she could work with that. "Really? You'd be surprised how well I can play with others," she teased the operative.

Miranda smirked to herself. Brooks had taken the bait. "Show me."

Shaking her head clear of the effects of the biotics, Maya rolled up to a sitting position and grabbed Miranda's face in her hands. Her kiss was fierce but Miranda didn't yield an inch, and when she'd had enough, she pulled Maya's head back roughly, exposing her vulnerable neck. She bit the tan skin there before running her tongue over the mark that her teeth left.

Brooks groaned slightly at the mixture of touches and Miranda ripped open her shirt, unconcerned with preserving the buttons when she did. Beneath it, Brooks hadn't bothered with a bra and Miranda traced her finger along the bottom of one of the pert brown tits that was now exposed to her sight. Maya sighed, and Miranda took a dark nipple between her fingers, pinching a little at first before caressing the tip more gently. It hardened up nicely under her touch, and Miranda enjoyed the feeling of control, of making the normally difficult woman respond to her ministrations.

Maya moaned, a little more than she meant to. Miranda might have been insufferably arrogant, but she did know what she was about, and Brooks found herself enjoying her attentions. No harm in that mixing business and pleasure, she supposed as Miranda switched breasts.

Just as she started to get into what Miranda was doing though, the operative abruptly stopped. Brooks raised an eyebrow, and Miranda laughed. "There you go, just like always, forgetting who's in charge. I thought you were going to prove how good you were."

Brooks' reply oozed sex. "Indeed I was."

Miranda stood up and unzipped her cat suit, letting it fall onto the hard floor before sitting down on Brooks' leather couch. "So prove it."

Looking at Miranda sitting there on her sofa, Maya couldn't deny that the operative's body was magnificent. Firm, full breasts barely contained by her lacy black bra, a well-toned stomach, long, athletic legs, and all accentuated by that imperious stare. Even in her underwear, she still looked like a queen.

Still, Brooks was confident she could get the best of her. A spoiled brat like that, who'd never faced any real adversity, would be easy to manipulate. Miranda already believed most of the world wanted her, and if playing a little kiss and tickle convinced her that Brooks was one of those people, well, there were worse ways to pass the time.

Brooks started walking towards her ostensible leader, but Miranda stopped the woman sharply. "No. On your hands and knees."

Miranda watched with a pleased smile as Brooks dropped to the ground and crawled towards her. While she certainly enjoyed the sight of the arrogant woman prostrating herself, that wasn't the real reason for her smirk. There was no way someone as tough and arrogant as Brooks would really give in so easily. No, what was important was that Maya thought Miranda believed she was beaten.

"Take them off," she snapped when Brooks knelt before her, and the shorter woman reached up and slid down Miranda's expensive black underwear. Beneath them, the operative was shaved and wet, and Maya wasted no time getting to work. Bending over, she parted Miranda's folds with her fingers while her tongue started tracing up and down the hard ridge of her clit.

Miranda sighed happily as Brooks ate her out, absent-mindedly fondling her own breasts through her bra as the tremors of pleasure radiated out from her clit. From the skillful way her tongue hit the sweet spots, the operative could tell hers was hardly the first pussy Maya had serviced. "Very good," she purred, her voice dripping with condescension. "I knew that mouth of yours had to be useful for something other than back talking your betters."

Brooks replied by nipping at her the pale skin of her inner thigh and Miranda closed her fist around a handful of the woman's black hair, giving it a sharp yank. "Now, now," she chastised her, "You were doing good there. You wouldn't want to ruin all your hard work by showing a little cheek."

Maya opened her mouth to apologize, but Miranda gave her hair another tug. "I don't need to hear you talk. Just get back to it." Brooks did has she was told, but as she sucked on the hard point of Miranda's clit, she smiled to herself. Let the little princess think she was getting the best of her. She'd learn otherwise soon enough.

* * *

Though the helmet protected her face from the dust storm that they were struggling through, Shepard could still barely see more than 10 feet in front of her face. "Kinda makes this thing useless," she muttered to herself, looking down the Indra sniper rifle cradled in her arms.

Still, she appreciated what the gun represented. She had found it next to the weapon's bench, along with a note from Liara addressed to her hoping that she could make use of it. Her lover had kept faith that she would return to command of the _Normandy_, and now Shepard needed to repay the gesture by finding the asari before it was too late.

Nobody at the Alliance base had answered their hails when their ship had landed on Mars and so now she, Ashley, and James were making their way there on foot through this goddamn dust storm and she was trying her best not to panic.

She never panicked. Not in combat at least. She could take care of herself, and even if something happened to her, well, when she joined the Alliance, she knew the risks. This was different though. This was Liara. The Shadow Broker had brought her back from the brink of a nervous breakdown nine months ago and if something had happened to her, Shepard didn't know what she was going to do.

"Look up ahead, Commander." The storm had largely passed them by while she'd been worrying and looking in the direction James indicated, she could see a squad of armored troopers. They didn't seem like they were Alliance though, and she pulled up her sniper rifle, using the scope to give herself a clearer look. Through it, she could make out the insignia on the armor.

"Cerberus." Shepard held the trigger down and the trooper toppled over, caught in a hail of rounds from the automatic sniper rifle that ripped through his armor like it was made of old cheese. She'd test-fired it on the ship before they landed, but she was impressed anew with Liara's gift.

Taking their cues from her, James fired off an explosive shell that landed in the midst of the Cerberus troopers and Ashley followed up with an incendiary grenade. Shepard, meanwhile, covered the area with her new toy, sending bursts of armor-piercing rounds screaming into anyone able to get clear of her teammates' explosives. The small squad of Cerberus personnel attempted to return fire, but they were outclassed and taken by surprise. A couple of stray shots tested James' shields, but Cerberus never stood a chance.

Not more than a minute later, she and her people were standing over a pile of enemy corpses along with those of several freshly dead Alliance soldiers.

"Putas!", James cursed, looking at the dead friendlies. Some of the Alliance soldiers hadn't been killed in battle. Instead, they had surrendered, only to be forced to their knees in the dirt and shot once each in the back of the head.

Ashley shared his frustration. "What the hell does Cerberus want here anyway, skipper?" Her tone was accusatory and Shepard didn't appreciate it, especially not right now.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean, Ash?"

"I mean, you used to be with Cerberus and I was wondering if you know what they're doing here on Mars?"

"I used to be with them?!", she sputtered angrily. "I may have worked with Cerberus, but I was never with them. Not like that. Do you know what they did to me? What they planned to do with me?"

The lieutenant replied to her outburst with a puzzled "No," and Shepard realized a second too late that not only did Ashley have no idea what she was talking about, she really didn't want to explain it to her. Liara may have helped her to accept what had been done to her body, but the thought of having it out in the open was still mortifying to the commander.

Maybe an incomplete truth would suffice. "When they brought me back, they did… experiments on me, really messed up stuff."

"Wait, Commander," James interrupted, perhaps having heard rumors from the medical personnel back at the base where she'd been interned, "Is it true that they…"

"You finish that sentence, marine," she snapped, "You'll be taking your meals through a straw." James shut up and she turned to the Alliance facility, barely visible in the distance through the sand. "You two listen to me because I'm only going to say this once. I have no idea what Cerberus is doing here but I'm damn sure going to find out and stop it. Any questions?" Cowed by this break in her usually friendly demeanor, neither of them said anything more. "Good. Now lets get moving."

* * *

Even nearly three years after the Geth attack on Therum, it still surprised Liara sometimes how quickly things could go bad. One minute, she had been in the midst of an ordinary day of research on Mars and the next, the reports of the Reaper invasion had started to pour in. The staff of the base had begun preparing for an evacuation, but before they could get very far along, bad had turned swiftly into critical.

Somehow, Cerberus forces had gotten inside their defenses without warning, and now, all that the Shadow Broker could do was try to get to the comm room before they found her. As bad as things were out there with the Reapers, the Alliance had to find the spare forces to send help to Mars. The plans for the prothean super-weapon in the archives might supply the only chance the galaxy had of winning the war, but not if they fell into the hands of Cerberus.

As she approached her destination, she was stopped short by the sound of voices, the kind filtered through a suit of combat armor. "Where is this blue bitch anyway?", one of them complained. "If we don't find her soon, Brooks will have our dicks in a vise."

"She's Shepard's girl, right?", the other leered. "That's gotta be a pretty tasty piece of ass."

Liara's blood ran cold. She had assumed Cerberus was here for the prothean data, but could they be after her as well? She knew the Illusive Man was no fan of hers, not after she had spoiled his plans for Shepard. His attack on her ship at Hagalaaz proved that his animosity had teeth, but with the Reaper invasion underway, would he really…. No. There was no time to worry about such things now. No matter what Cerberus' goals were, her priority had to be raising the alarm with the Alliance.

Liara waited until the footsteps grew slightly more distant before she made her move, ducking out from behind the corner and hurling a singularity at the two Cerberus troopers she saw. Caught by surprise, they found themselves floating helplessly in the air, barely having had time to register her presence before she raised up her pistol and fired a shot into each of them.

There was a third man though, and even as the first two were dropping to the ground dead, he rolled out from behind the corner at the other end of the hall, firing his assault rifle at the asari. She winced as the rounds smacked into her barriers, dropping to the ground to limit her exposure. The trooper seemed to think he had her, because he emerged from his cover, holding his rifle.

"Don't move, you fucking…"

Before he could get any further, she lifted a hand and caught him in a stasis field. Pulling herself up to her feet, she calmly put two bullets into his frozen head before darting into the communications room and closing the door behind her.

She had to move quickly before more Cerberus forces came to investigate the fighting and though, theoretically, she didn't have the Alliance clearance required to make outgoing calls from this facility, as the Shadow Broker, she had long ago learned how to bypass such restrictions. Her fingers flying over the terminal, she placed a call to Admiral Hackett, hoping that he wasn't dead or fled from the system yet. He had always trusted Shepard, and now, Liara would have to trust him.

Saying a silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess when Hackett's blurry image appeared on the screen, she launched immediately into her plea. "Admiral, Cerberus is here on Mars. I know how bad things are but I need you to send help. We can't evacuate on our own and the prothean weapon design…"

He stopped her mid-sentence. "Doctor T'Soni…" It was hard to hear his voice through the interference, but bits were still intelligible. "Appraised of… already… Shepard… En route from…"

The call faded out, but Liara had heard enough. Shepard was coming to Mars. In spite of everything else that was going on, she felt a surge of hope go through her at the news. Surely, her lover would find a way to get through the Cerberus forces and Liara just had to find a way to hold out until she got there.

Her first thought was to call Shepard to give the commander her location, but her attempt was of no use; either she wasn't here on Mars yet or the call couldn't get through all of the interference. Liara moved to the door, ready to find a better place to hide, but outside, she heard voices close by once more.

"Here are the missing troopers, but there's no sign of her yet, ma'am."

"Well, you better find that bloody asari and quickly. And remember, I need her alive." Goddess! Liara knew that voice. Thinking quickly, the Shadow Broker opened her omni-tool back up and entered a quick series of commands, whispering instructions through the connection. This time her message got through and she had to hope that it would be enough, because stuck in a comm room with Miranda Lawson looking for her, Liara was definitely in trouble.


	4. Chapter 4

Miranda growled with frustration as she surveyed the corpses lying in the hallway. At first, the mission had gone smoothly. Dr. Eva had successfully sabotaged the facility's outer defenses, Cerberus' forces had landed on Mars without incident, and the incompetent soldiers defending the archives had folded quickly enough. They were hardly the best and brightest; this far inside their own space, the Alliance had thought they could get away with stationing second rate troops and the Reaper invasion had let Miranda catch them with their pants down.

Since then, though, things had taken a turn for the worst. She'd lost contact with the troopers guarding the entrance to the base, that damn asari was still on the loose, and if Miranda didn't get her and escape from here soon, the Reapers would close off access to the Sol Relay. Now she was looking down at the bodies of three Cerberus troopers, and her already limited patience was running out. "Check every door!", she snapped. "These imbeciles were only killed three minutes ago. That asari can't have gotten far."

Indeed she had not, Liara thought from inside the comm room as she heard Miranda's orders echo down the hallway. She knew when she went to make the call to Hackett that there was a good chance she'd get herself caught in the process, but she had no choice given the stakes.

Not that she had any intention of letting Cerberus get her easily. When the door to the communications room slid open, she was waiting. A blast of biotic energy rippled out from her hand, slamming in the chest of the first soldier through the entranceway. His armor crumpled under the energy blast and as he fell to the ground, a second trooper followed behind him. Liara emptied her pistol into his armor as he staggered over the body of his comrade, and when he tumbled over, she raced past the two fallen soldiers.

As she entered the hallway, she saw another two troopers about thirty feet away, but she sprinted in the opposite direction. She couldn't win a pitched battle against all the Cerberus forces here; she had to gamble that their orders to take her alive would give her a chance to escape instead.

"Stop!", one of them yelled, but she ignored the command and though bullets impacted around her, they were warning shots, meant to stop, not kill the asari. She half-turned, firing a few blind shots from her pistol to discourage pursuit. Shooting wildly, she wheeled around the corner…

…Only to be close lined across the chest by a waiting forearm. She flipped over and dropped to the floor with a painful crash. Her pistol skidded down the corridor and she found herself looking up at a brown-skinned human leveling a shotgun that looked too big for her slim frame.

"I'd stay down if I were you, Doctor T'Soni" The human's voice was a mocking purr. "I may have orders to bring you in alive, but after all the trouble you've given us, I just might enjoy the choice to hurt you a little bit first."

Deciding to take that risk, Liara hurled a biotic pulse at the woman. It caught her across the chest and she staggered backwards, but even as the asari was pulling herself off the floor, the slim human recovered enough to swing the butt of her shotgun at Liara. It cracked into her barriers, and the Shadow Broker felt them buckle under the strain. Lunging forward, she grabbed the woman by the shoulders, trying to get her arms pinned, but the human was too nimble for her. She wriggled loose and rolled backwards down the hall, trying to find a clear position to shoot from.

Reaching deep within herself, Liara focused her power and hurled a singularity at the woman. Though her shields prevented her from being totally immobilized, the human was still left straining against its pull and the Shadow Broker thought that maybe she could use the distraction to get past her.

She hoped in vain. Liara didn't make it two more steps before her back exploded in a crashing wave of pain that sent her tumbling to the ground. She rolled over, but before she could rise, her field of vision was filled with the sight of Miranda Lawson's glowing fist descending into her face.

* * *

Shepard jammed her omni-blade into the Cerberus trooper hurling himself at her, the glowing edge piercing through his armor and straight into his heart. He dropped to the floor dead and even as she shoved his corpse away from her, she saw Vega unload his shotgun into what looked like a Cerberus officer.

Taking a breath, she surveyed the field. "We clear, Ash?", she yelled to the lieutenant when she didn't see any more Cerberus troopers left standing against them.

"Looking good, skipper," Ashley called down from the walkway, shouldering her sniper rifle. In spite of their differences, it's been good to fight alongside Ashley again but Shepard couldn't take any pleasure in that right then. All that they'd found on Mars were Cerberus troopers and dead Alliance soldiers. There was no sign of Liara and the fear that Shepard had felt ever since they landed had been getting harder to fight down.

"Come on," she told her squad, "We've got to get to the archives before Cerberus steals whatever it is that Hackett sent us to find." And with any luck, Liara would be there she thought. Her beloved archeologist did love her research and she'd try to safeguard it from Cerberus.

"Wait," Ashley warned as they started towards the tram station that would lead them to the archives. "Over there. It's a drone."

Shepard raised her Indra in the direction of the intruder but an instant before she fired, the drone intoned, "Commander Shepard."

The commander raised an eyebrow. "Info-Drone?"

"You know this thing?", James asked, surprised.

"Doctor T'Soni has designated me as Glyph."

"Where is she?", she asked, trying to keep the worried edge out of her voice, "Where's Liara?"

"Doctor T'Soni was in danger of being captured by Cerberus forces. She has synched me to her omni-tool so that I can lead you to her location."

The drone sounded like it could be telling her the soup of the day, but a mixture of hope and panic ran through the commander at its words. "All right," she told her squadmates. "We'll split up. You two get to the archives. I'll go rescue Liara."

"Are you sure, skipper?", Ashley asked. "Will you be okay without us?"

"Hey, if I can stall a Reaper invasion on my own, I can handle a few Cerberus kidnappers." The two marines headed off towards the tram, but as she dashed after the drone, Shepard's mission to Bahak was still very much on her mind. In spite of her glib remark to Ashley, she hadn't exactly been happy with the outcome that day. She'd been too late to save the 300,000 batarians; she wasn't going to be too late for Liara as well.

* * *

Liara blinked as consciousness crept back in painfully, accompanied by a wave of dizziness. She was upside down she quickly realized, slung over the shoulder of a massive Cerberus lieutenant. Her hands were bound behind her back, and around her neck she could feel the cold metal of a slave's collar.

With them were two more Cerberus troopers, the dark-skinned woman she had encountered in the hallway, and Miranda Lawson. Bad odds; too bad for her to try anything herself, particularly if the collar did what she suspected it did. Such devices were generally designed to administer excruciating pain if the wearer tried to use their biotic abilities. No, she'd have to bide her time and hope Glyph could bring Shepard to her in time.

"You just had to interfere," Miranda groused as they walked. "When you gave me Shepard's body, I told you that was the end of your involvement."

"I…", Liara stammered, blinking back the lingering pain from the blow to her head, "I do not abandon those I care about." She briefly wondered if there was anyone that Miranda cared about anyone enough to stand by them in that way before concluding that it didn't much matter right now.

"Well, you just better hope she cares as much about you," the dark-skinned human laughed. "Miranda here is betting she'll do anything we want to save her little alien slut."

"She won't," Liara protested weakly, "She won't give in to you." She hoped it was true. The thought of her love for the commander being used to control her was unbearable to the Shadow Broker.

"We'll see," Miranda said coldly as they entered a large storage chamber. "I'll wait here at the rendezvous point," she snapped at Brooks, "You go check on the ship. We've already lost enough men today and I don't want any more surprises."

Brooks gave Miranda a mocking salute and climbed up a nearby ladder. "And if I'm very lucky," the operative thought to herself, "Somebody will be waiting there for you and they'll blow your bloody head off."

The trooper carrying Liara tossed her to the ground next to a pile of storage crates. She groaned softly at the impact, and for an instant Miranda felt a twinge of regret. "You may not believe it, Liara," she told the asari, "But I don't particularly enjoy doing any of this. You have simply left me no choice."

"You always have a choice," Liara insisted.

"You're awfully naïve for someone who thought she could be the Shadow Broker," Miranda commented, thinking with a silent shudder of what would be done to her sister if she failed here. "The salvation of the galaxy and the betterment of the human race demand sacrifices. My discomfort with the methods involved is irrelevant. We all do what we must, and soon enough, so will Shepard."

Even as Liara opened her mouth to reply, something exploded a few feet away from her. The concussive shot left her auditory canals ringing but she could still see clearly enough when a brace of bullets ripped through the huge man who had carried her to the storage room. The other two troopers staggered in the direction of the shots but seconds later, Liara heard something explode in their midst and wet chunks of blood and bone spilled across the floor near her.

Shepard! Her lover had come for her. Liara started to rise but she felt a strong hand clamp down on her shoulder and the hard barrel of a gun press into her temple. "Oh, no you don't," Miranda's harsh voice warned from behind her. "Stop right there, Shepard," the operative yelled out. "Step out where I can see you or your bloody girlfriend will be short a head."

From out of the smoke, Shepard emerged, holding the rifle Liara had left for her aboard the _Normandy_. Her green eyes met Liara's blue ones and she tried to convey a silent reassurance to her lover. There was blood on the asari's pale blue forehead and the commander fought hard to keep her anger at Miranda under control. "Let Liara go," she snapped.

"I don't think so, Shepard." This situation had gone to hell in a hand basket, but the operative believed she could still salvage it. She'd planned to deliver this ultimatum from a safe distance but she could make do. "You better put down that gun and start behaving yourself."

"Behave myself?" Shepard didn't drop the gun. As frightened as she was for Liara, she couldn't disarm herself, for both of their sakes.

"Let me be clear," Miranda said icily. "You will turn command of the _Normandy_ back over to Cerberus. You will go where we tell you to go. You will fight who we tell you to fight. And you will fuck who we bloody well tell you to fuck. And if you behave yourself, we'll let you see your alien lover once in a while."

"And if I don't? What'll you do? Kill her? How will you control me then?" Even saying the words terrified Shepard, but she had to stay strong. If Miranda knew how scarred she was of losing Liara, they'd both be doomed.

"Kill her, no. Not unless we have to," Miranda replied. "But there are so many other ways we have to make her pay for your defiance. So many experiments we could run…"

Behind her, Liara could feel Miranda's attention waver slightly as she locked eyes with Shepard and the asari made her move. Hurling herself backwards, she slammed the back of her crest into the operative's torso. Miranda was staggered, but her finger reflexively squeezed down on the trigger even as Liara raised her barriers.

A wave of pain unlike any she had ever experienced before ripped through her. It felt like her head had been dipped in oil and lit on fire, but though the impact of the pistol thundered against the shield protecting her skull, she was still alive.

When she heard Liara scream in pain, Shepard fired. The burst from her Indra caught Miranda in the shoulder and the operative dropped the archeologist. Ignoring the shredded remains of her left arm, she rolled away from Liara and scampered for cover, trying to lose herself in the stacks of crates.

Shepard didn't give chase. Instead, she raced to her lover's side, pulling the asari into her arms and releasing the binders holding her wrists. For months, she'd dreamed of little but holding Liara again, but not like this. The Shadow Broker was still twitching in pain, and Shepard's heart almost stopped as she checked over her body to see how badly she'd been hurt.

"Oh God," the commander choked out, "I'm so sorry. Are you… what did they do to you?"

Liara touched her fingers to the collar, her throat still raw from screaming. "This…"

"I'll get it off you," she promised. "You'll be okay."

"Find… find her," Liara panted through the receding pain. "I'll be all right."

Shepard picked back up her gun and scanned the room, listening for Miranda's footsteps. She hated the thought of leaving Liara's side, but she had to make sure they were safe before she could take care of her lover. The commander had let Miranda walk away once before and it had almost cost her everything.

Miranda scampered towards the ladder that led to the landing pad, blood flowing out of her ruined shoulder. She was no match for Shepard, not in her current state...

The hatch above her opened and she saw Maya starring down at her. "We're clear. You ready to leave yet, Lawson?"

"Brooks!", she blurted out, "Shepard's here and she has Liara. We have to…"

"I don't think so," Maya interrupted her. She had had quite enough of the woman's incompetence.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you've failed Cerberus for the last time. Don't worry," she sneered as she dropped the hatch behind her, "I'll send Oriana your regards."

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed the big showdown. A few more twists to go, and then some reunion sex.**


	5. Chapter 5

The hatch above Miranda slammed shut with a sickening finality. She had always known Brooks was a snake, but the woman had really picked the worst possible moment to prove it. Gone now was any hope of escape or reinforcements, and as she heard Shepard's footsteps drawing closer, Miranda knew she'd have to talk fast if she, and more importantly her sister, were to have any hope of survival.

Closing in on the source of the metallic crash, Shepard's finger twitched on the trigger of her rifle. The way that Liara had screamed when she raised her barrier, the blood on her head from where someone had hit her… The Spectre had rarely been as ready to kill someone as she was when she turned the corner and saw Miranda standing in front of her. What stayed her hand, though, weren't the wounds the operative had sustained or even her raised arms; as angry as Shepard was, she might have fired anyway. No, it was the expression on Miranda's face. In all the battles Shepard had fought beside the woman, she had never seen her afraid.

"Wait," the operative pleaded, "Don't shoot."

"Give me one good reason not to," the Spectre growled, her whole body practically quivering with coiled rage. "You twisted my body! You tried to break my mind! You nearly killed Liara!"

"I know," Miranda said wearily, dropping her shredded arm. "I wouldn't expect you to forgive me for any of that."

"Then why shouldn't I kill you?" Her hesitation was passing. She felt like she had already let Miranda live too long.

"Shepard." The single calm word yanked her attention around, focusing it on her injured lover standing behind her. "Don't do it."

"Liara," she started, surprised at what she was hearing, "She almost…"

"This isn't about her." The asari's hand came to rest on her armored back. Shepard was better than this. She was a hero and Liara couldn't let her own plight turn her commander into a cold-blooded killer. "You didn't let Miranda control you before. Don't let your anger at her do it now."

Shepard exhaled, relaxing her grip on the trigger. Liara was right, damn it. "All right, Miranda. What the hell do you want?"

"My sister needs help." She could see confusion in the commander's eyes. Given the frosty state of their relationship, she had never told Shepard about Oriana. Even when their father had tracked down her sister, she went to Cerberus for assistance instead of her. It had been a horrible mistake, and if she didn't correct it now, the only person she had ever really cared for would pay the price.

"I told you that I ran away from my father, but what I left out was that I took my baby sister with me when I did. Cerberus helped me to protect her from him, but now, she's their hostage. The Illusive Man made it clear that if I failed on this mission, Oriana would suffer for it. I know what you must think of me, but I'm responsible for her, so here's the deal I'm offering you: keep her safe and I'll give you everything I have on Cerberus."

Shepard wanted to call Miranda a liar but what she had seen in the woman's eyes told her otherwise. They had been filled with the same fear she had felt when she saw a gun put Liara's head, and that meant that Miranda would hold up her end of the bargain.

"Fine," she snarled, trying to let go of her anger. "You have a deal." She tossed a medi-gel pack to Miranda. "Now, apply that to your arm and disable that fucking collar you put on Liara."

Miranda injected the medi-gel and as the cool feeling of relief flooded her body, she sent the over-ride signal from her omni-tool to the collar. It popped open and Liara threw it to the ground, rubbing the sore skin of her neck.

"Better?', Shepard asked her lover tenderly, and when the Shadow Broker nodded, she turned back to Miranda. "Now, as for intel on Cerberus, you can start by telling me about whoever it was that just abandoned you here."

In spite of the pain she still felt in her arm and the humiliating defeat she just suffered, Miranda forced a small smile to her lips. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about her."

* * *

Maya Brooks snickered to herself as she hurried across the landing pad. Honestly, as far as she was concerned, this mission couldn't have gone much better. Sure, the plot to kidnap Liara had gone awry, but she'd never really been sold on the value of trying to extort Shepard anyway. And the look on Miranda's face when she realized that Brooks wasn't her obedient little pussy-licker… well, let's just say that her distraught expression was going to occupy a prominent place in Maya's jill-off bank.

All she needed to do now was take the shuttle over to pick up Dr. Eva at the secondary rendezvous point and get the hell out of there. The data on the prothean weapon should be enough to keep the Illusive Man happy and with any luck, she'd even get him to give her the assignment to take care of Oriana Lawson. The thought of visiting a few of the humiliations Miranda had subjected her to on the bitch's little sister was already putting a spring in her step and sending a tingle between her legs.

Settling back into the pilot's chair, she engaged the ignition controls, but even as the thrusters fired, she heard another sound alongside them: the icy voice of Miranda Lawson. "Hello, Brooks," the prerecorded message started, seeming to come from every direction at once, "If you're hearing this, it's because the ship has detected your omni-tool signature and not mine, which I can only assume means you have betrayed me. Well done, I suppose, though clearly not well enough."

Trying hard not to panic, Brooks leaped up out of her chair and dashed to the shuttle doors. She pounded on the release control, but the hatch wouldn't open and all around her, she could hear an ominous roar as the engines moved past operational and towards critically overheated. The ship started to shake with the strain and over the loudspeaker, she heard Miranda's last words. "Goodbye, Maya," the operative said with unsettling cheerfulness. "I'd like to say it's been fun but, frankly, I've had better."

* * *

"Gotta say, Williams, that thing was one nasty piece of work."

Ashley nodded, rubbing her sore arm. What had looked like Cerberus' inside woman, Doctor Eva Core, had proved in addition to be a particularly dangerous combat android. The thing had damn near broken her wrist before Vega caught it with a shotgun blast, and even then, it had taken a couple of stabs from her omni-blade before it stayed down for good. "Thanks, James, you saved my ass back there."

He grinned. "Don't mention it. So, what do you think that pedazo de mierda was doing up here on the roof anyway? Waiting for a pickup?'

"Probably." Suddenly, something drew her eye and she pointed it out to James. Looking down from the roof of the facility, the two of them could see the silhouette of a Cerberus shuttle taking off. "All right," Ashley said, unshouldering her sniper rifle and trying to get a bead on the ship, "Get ready, cause I think we're about to have…"

Her words trailed off. Just as abruptly as the shuttle had entered their field of vision, it exploded in a burst of flame that stood out for a moment amid the dusty Mars sky and then vanished. "Never mind," she chuckled, "Looks like everything is under control."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sitting next to Liara on the shuttle back to the _Normandy_, Shepard wasn't fighting the urge to keep her beloved Shadow Broker close. The feel of the asari's body next to hers was soothing, a physical reminder that she had survived, and Shepard's frazzled nerves very much needed that right then.

"I will be all right, Shepard," Liara reassured her. "I am just a little tired.."

"Even still, I want Doctor Chakwas to take a look at you when we get back."

"If you wish." She put her head on Shepard's shoulder. "I'm just relieved you aren't angry with me."

She rubbed Liara's arm comfortingly. "Why would I be angry?"

Liara's voice dropped to a sultry whisper, making sure that the other passengers on the shuttle couldn't hear her. "I promised you I would look after your needs, and then I left you all those months on Earth without even a visit." She looked up affectionately at her commander, those big blue eyes just melting the human's heart. "I tried, but it just wasn't possible."

"I know you did. Liara, nine months ago, you stopped me from losing my mind. You've done more for me than I could've ever imagined. I don't blame you for the Alliance being assholes." She ran her hand down Liara's back. "Anyway, that's over now. You're coming back to the _Normandy_, and I can promise you one thing: you're not gonna be stuck behind the med-bay anymore." She looked over at Miranda, sitting on the other side of the shuttle next to James, her injured arm in a sling, her good one handcuffed to the bench. Even in defeat, the woman did have a calm dignity. "You can have Miranda's office. Somehow, I don't think she'll be needing it any more."

"What will happen to her anyway?", Liara asked.

"Alliance detention probably. I imagine she's in for some long debriefs."

Liara nodded. "Once we dock at the Citadel and I pick up some new communications equipment, I can arrange for my contacts on Ilium to move her sister someplace safe."

"Thanks. And, Liara," she added, planting a gentle kiss on the asari's forehead, "Thank you for stopping me from doing something I would've regretted."

"Well, you did save my life again," Liara smiled, "It is the least I can do."

* * *

"So, doc, how's she look?" Though Liara had assured her she was all right, Shepard couldn't relax fully until she heard Doctor Chakwas' verdict.

"Don't worry, commander, I'm giving her a clean bill of health. Most of it's just cuts and bruises and fortunately, those ugly collars are designed to inflict pain, but not damage their owner's 'property.'" Doctor Chakwas practically spat on the last word, leaving no doubt as to what she thought of anyone who would keep slaves. "It's just nerve stimulation; no lasting harm done. She can come by tomorrow if anything still hurts and I'd keep her out of combat for a few days, but she'll be fine."

Liara smiled up at the doctor. "Many thanks."

"My pleasure. I'm just glad that you're all right and back aboard the _Normandy_." She shook her head. "We're going to need people like you if we're going to survive this war."

As they stepped out of the med-bay, Shepard took Liara's blue hand in her own. "Come on," she told her, running her thumb over the scales on the back of it. "I'll get you to your rooms."

Liara's reply was warm but firm. "No."

"What do you mean?"

"Shepard," she pleaded, looking up at her commander, "We can deal with moving me in tomorrow. Right now, I need you to take me to bed."

"Are you sure?" Shepard's body shivered with anticipation at the thought but she had to be certain. "Your head…"

"Will be fine. You heard Doctor Chakwas." Liara turned to face Shepard, wrapping her arms around the Spectre's neck. "I have waited six months to have you again and I almost died today. Please."

Shepard couldn't say no, not just to Liara but to her own body. The Shadow Broker wasn't the only one who'd been missing her lover and right then the feeling of her pressed up against Shepard's body was making her cock stir.

In all the chaos, they hadn't had time for a proper kiss and with her decision made, the commander moved to correct that oversight. Her full lips caught the asari's soft, blue-purple lips with her own, sliding her tongue eagerly into her lover's eager mouth even as Liara was practically shoving her onto the nearby elevator.

As the doors closed behind them, Liara felt Shepard stiffen against her leg and she purred hungrily. After long months with nothing but her own hand for comfort, she was impatient and she buried her face in the Spectre's long red hair even has her fingers dropped down to the buttons of her uniform shirt. Her head still hurt a bit, but she didn't care anymore. More than she needed rest, she needed this, not just the pleasure but the renewed sense of connection with the woman she loved.

Throwing the commander's shirt open, Liara unhooked her plain black bra and ran her hands over the firm breasts beneath it, enjoying the feel of the stiff nipples poking against her palms. Shepard sighed happily at Liara's treatment. She'd spent the day with a hundred terrible things: the invasion of Earth, the murdered soldiers on Mars, the near-death of her lover, and losing herself in pleasure was exactly what she craved.

The elevator arrived at her cabin and she hurried off, picking up Liara in her eagerness and carrying her inside. The asari refused to take her hands off of Shepard's body, rubbing and stroking her now-bare torso as they entered the room. Already, the commander was straining against her pants, her erection pressing against her lover's ass, and she whispered huskily, "Jesus, I missed you, Liara."

She laid the Shadow Broker down on the bed, pulling off her clothes with swift, practiced motions. Beneath them, some of the bruises of the day's trials were still visible, but as long as Liara didn't mind, it made no difference to Shepard. There couldn't be anything more beautiful than her beloved, no matter her condition. "I missed this," she continued, kissing along the curve of Liara's neck. "I missed the feel of your skin." She dropped lower, running her tongue along the swell of her lover's breasts, flicking over the dark blue points of her nipples.

Liara's breath came in shudders as Shepard kissed her way downward. Her lust felt like a coiled spring, something wound too tight that was just now releasing itself and with every word her commander spoke, she came a little bit more undone.

"I missed the sounds you make," Shepard told her as she ran her hands over her hips, pulling down her damp white panties. "I missed how turned on you get for me." She ran her finger across the asari's azure, gathering some of her arousal and bringing it to her lips. "And I missed how you taste." She sucked eagerly on her fingertips and Liara trembled at the sight of it. No one made her feel desirable the way that Shepard did and she felt a fresh heat pulse in her azure at just the thought of what the Spectre was going to do for her next.

Lowering her mouth to Liara's sex, the commander inhaled the sweet scent. The asari was delightfully wet and Shepard eagerly slid her tongue around the edges of her azure before sliding it inside. Liara moaned as Shepard's tongue ran along her inner walls and the sounds and taste of her lover were making the Spectre's erection pulse. She reached down, unfastening her pants to ease the pressure, but didn't go any further. As badly as her cock was crying out for attention, it was Liara that she wanted wrapped around it; she'd spent more than enough time touching herself in lock-up.

Shepard's teasing strokes were already driving Liara wild and when the commander moved up, taking the asari's clit between her full lips, she almost melted right then and there. She was practically trembling with desire, the urge to meld pushing it's way to the front of her thoughts, but she beat it back. As badly as she craved the joining, she wanted to wait until Shepard was inside her. Instead, she tangled her hands in her lover's red locks and just tried to savor what she was feeling. She knew how badly the commander must want to fuck her, and the care that she was taking first, the way she lavished attention on her bud, reminded Liara how much she was loved.

"Goddess," she panted, "Shepard…Shepard…Shepard…" She couldn't think of anything else to say, but the commander didn't mind. She kept licking at her lover's clit, running up and down the shaft with her tongue, and as she felt the asari's hips buck beneath her, she added two fingers in Liara's azure. They were immediately soaked with her wetness, and Shepard's cock throbbed desperately at the thought of replacing them there. She knew how close Liara was from the sound of her cries and the motion of her hips, and she slid her digits up and down her inner walls even as she sucked harder at the head of her clit.

With a final press of her fingers, Liara came for her, her back arching with pleasure as more of her release coated the Spectre's hand. The feeling was electric, but even as Shepard's fingers coaxed more and more wetness out of her azure, Liara knew it wasn't enough. She needed her lover inside her in every way, and she reached down, tugging lightly on the commander's hair. "Shepard," she moaned, "Fuck me. Now."

The Spectre couldn't comply fast enough. Lifting up her head, she threw her pants and boxers the rest of the way off and pulled up alongside the asari, kissing her with a sharp urgency. While their tongues tangled, Liara reached down and wrapped her hand around Shepard's hard length. It practically jumped in her palm, and the Shadow Broker spread her legs, guiding the needy Spectre between them. Her lover's shaft was already slick with precum and Liara couldn't wait to have it inside her.

Lining up their hips, Shepard groaned with pleasure as the tip of her cock started to push past the entrance to Liara's azure. It was so tight around her, and she was easing herself in gradually, her self-control threatening to unravel prematurely otherwise. Abruptly, though, Liara lifted her hips up and pushed herself down on her cock, encasing Shepard suddenly in warm wetness. It was too much. After being deprived for so long, the sudden heat and pressure sent her straight over the edge in spite of her efforts to hold back. All she could do was grip the asari's shoulders as she came, spurting wildly inside her lover's azure, the pleasure temporarily blotting out her reservations.

"Shit, Liara," she panted as speech returned, brushing her fingers lightly across the asari's beautiful face. "That was… I didn't mean to come so quickly."

"I will take it as a compliment," the Shadow Broker smiled proudly, "Especially since I know you have more for me."

"Definitely." Once was not nearly enough for Shepard. Even while the shudders of her first climax were ending, she was still stiff inside her lover and in response to the asari's hips rising up to take her deeper once more, she started moving. Shepard went slowly at first, making long thrusts where she would pull almost all the way out before burying herself deep inside Liara once more. The edge was off of her need now, and she wanted to savor everything she'd spent months dreaming about, to prolong both of their pleasures.

Each time Shepard withdrew, Liara groaned a little at the loss of her lover, but the sharp feeling of fullness that came when the Spectre plunged back into her made up for it. Her hands caressed the strong muscles of her commander's back, pulling her deeper with each thrust, and when Shepard's tongue started running along the side of her crest, she could no longer fight back her urges. She felt incredible, and she needed to share it, to share everything with her lover. "Please, love," she begged, "I need… I need…"

"I know, sweetheart." Shepard could see the darkness forming in Liara's blue eyes, and she ran her fingers tenderly down the scales of her neck. "Go ahead."

Liara threw out her thoughts, clutching the Spectre's mind to her own. She could feel the straining need in Shepard's cock, the warm press of her own breasts against pale skin, the heat coursing through the human's body, and behind them all, the love and gratitude at their reunion that filled her commander. "Goddess, I need this," she whispered in Shepard's thoughts, affection and desire accompanying every word. "You don't know how much time I spent on Mars, wishing you were with me. In me."

A memory of Liara, lying naked on her bed, her hand between her legs, softly moaning Shepard's name hit the Spectre and it drove her wild. She sped up her thrusts, determined to give Liara everything she'd been missing. "It wasn't enough," Liara continued huskily. "I needed this, needed you, body and mind, every part of you."

"Fuck," Shepard groaned, her lover's words along with the squeezing wetness of her azure pushing her towards the edge once again. "I felt the same. Remembering the things you did to me, were all that kept me sane sometimes."

As Shepard rubbed against all the right spots inside of her, Liara's mind dove through layers of shared memory: riding her lover's cock in her cabin the night they had reunited, Shepard on Earth, stroking herself to the memory, the feeling of her own azure clutching at the Spectre's cock right then… She couldn't form words anymore, not even in her thoughts. The mixture of pleasures, past and present, hers and Shepard's, were all she could focus in that moment.

"God, Liara," Shepard groaned, lost in the sensations they shared. She reached down, grabbing the asari's soft ass, taking her lover as fast and deep as she could. She couldn't hold back much longer and she wanted to give Liara everything she had first. "Gonna, gonna…"

"Yes," Liara choked out in between her moans, wanting nothing more than their shared release. Her head threw back and a wordless cry ripped its way out of the asari as Shepard stiffened at her approval, her body straining as she exploded with a final, powerful thrust. Their climax was longer and more powerful this time, the asari's fluids soaking Shepard's thatch of dark red hair even as she filled her lover's pulsing azure once more. It felt as if all of the tension and longing they had both felt those long months were being released in one perfect moment, bliss and relief merging together seamlessly.

As her cock continued to spurt inside Liara, Shepard planted a series of small kiss along her lover's collarbone, panting with her exertions. She felt the asari's body relax beneath her, her hips slumping down, her arms resting on the Spectre's back. Their minds were starting to drift apart as well and the intense pleasure she had felt moments before was being replaced with an exhausted contentment. Looking down, she kissed Liara softly on the lips.

"God, Li," she sighed, "You're amazing."

"Mm, you too," the asari mumbled. As wonderful as her climax had been, it had also taken the last of her energy and all she wanted now was to fall asleep next to Shepard.

Shepard could hardly blame her sleepy lover. Even her own legendary stamina had been drained by the rollar coaster they had both been on the last 24 hours, and rest sounded pretty good to the weary Spectre. As she slid her softening cock out of Liara and took the asari into her arms, she felt something like peace in spite of all that had happened on that insane day. For months, she had been dreading the arrival of the Reapers, and as terrible as their attack was, at least now she could fight it. More than that though, she had Liara by her side once more, and if that wasn't a reason to fight… and win, she didn't know what was.

* * *

**Sorry it took a little while to get to the reunion sex, but hopefully you found the ride interesting as well as the changes to canon. One more chapter to go: some more smut, and foreshadowing for the final part of this planned trilogy, Terminal Diagnosis. As always, thanks to everyone, reading, faving, and reviewing.**


	6. Chapter 6

When she first felt the warmth around her cock, Shepard thought she must still be back in Alliance detention sleeping. As her green eyes slowly fluttered open though, she realized that the reality was so much better than any dream. Looking between her legs, she saw Liara, still naked from the night before, her dark lips wrapped around Shepard's hardening shaft. The asari bobbed her head down a little further, taking her deeper into her wonderful mouth and the Spectre jerked up in the bed, moaning with pleasure.

Liara looked up at the commander, a satisfied expression on her lovely face. Slowly, she drew her mouth off of the human's cock, replacing it with her hand, which she ran slowly over the spit-slicked member. "Ah good, Shepard," she smiled, "You're awake."

"Hard not to be," she groaned, "When you're doing that."

"Do you mean this?" Liara dipped her head down, running her tongue along the length of Shepard's cock.

"That would, ah, be it. How did I get to be so lucky this morning?"

Liara turned her gaze back to Shepard, mischief shining in her bright blue eyes. "I decided to remind you how much I love waking up next to you." The Shadow Broker's thumb ran along the crown of Shepard's cock and the commander bit her lip, trying to maintain some semblance of her self-control. "And besides," Liara added, "You have a very important meeting with the Council later today and I intend to make sure you are in a good mood for it."

"I'm very pleasant," Shepard choked out. Liara's hand was teasing her, stroking just quickly enough to make the Spectre crazy, but not fast enough to bring her close to the edge of release.

"With me, certainly." Liara ran her free hand lovingly along the curve of her commander's hip. "But sometimes, when dealing with politicians, you can become irritable."

"I see," Shepard sighed, laying back onto the pillows. She wasn't about to argue, not when Liara was both right and doing such delicious things to her. "By all means then, continue."

Satisfied that her point had been made, Liara returned to what she had been doing, planting small, wet kisses along Shepard's opening before making her way up her cock. A low growl escaped from the back of her lover's throat, and Liara was reminded of how much she had missed the ability to bring pleasure to the woman she cared for more than any other.

The extra-net readings she had done when she first discovered Shepard's change suggested that this was an inherently submissive act, but as her lips closed around the head of the Spectre's cock, Liara couldn't help but disagree. Perhaps that other opinion related to some conception of gender that was foreign to the asari, but suckling on the sensitive tip in her mouth made her feel very much in control, able to coax the most delightful sounds from her commander. She could feel the strain in the thick shaft, and she relished the fact that she could both induce such need and take care of it.

Shepard reached down, stroking her fingers over Liara's cheek and crest, marveling at how sexy her lover looked doing this. What had started out as a delightful way to wake up was rapidly building towards intense craving. Their first night together after her change, Liara's inexperience hadn't mattered in light of the Spectre's desperate need, but the asari had taken advantage of their times together since then to become impressively skilled. Even as she tongue swirled around the head of her cock, her nimble fingers kept pumping its length, moving her towards a climax that the commander could already feel building.

Liara started taking Shepard deeper, relaxing her throat so that she could get more of the Spectre inside her. Her lover's shaft was throbbing now, drops of clear fluid gathering at the tip, and the thought of sending the commander over the edge made the Shadow Broker's own clit pulse with desire. She pulled her mouth almost all of the way off of Shepard's cock before dropping back down and taking it deeper once more.

Shepard's nearly broke at the feeling of the asari's latest trick, and she mumbled out, "Jesus, sweetheart. I'm… fuck, I'm so close." Liara withdrew her mouth again, but this time she replaced it with her hand, stroking the commander's length swiftly while she replied.

"Good," she purred, her voice silky, "I want to feel you come, love. Feel you hot in my mouth." As she said the provocative words, her thumb pressed against the swollen head of her lover's cock and the combination was too much for the Spectre. She exploded, the first spurts of her release leaping out to coat Liara's hand and leave wet streaks along the asari's lovely breasts.

Not wanting to lose any more, Liara lowered her mouth once again, covering the pulsing head. Further bursts of warmth splashed onto her tongue and she swallowed them down eagerly. Shepard's hand was stroking the side of her head, the Spectre gasping endearments as she came, telling Liara how beautiful she looked and how good she made the commander feel.

Only when the last drops of Shepard's release had been coaxed out did Liara let the Spectre's cock leave her lips, favoring it with a final suck that made her lover tremble at the pressure on her hyper-sensitive skin. Shepard lay back on the bed, panting with satisfaction while the asari licked the fluid off of her hand before falling into the commander's waiting arms.

"So," the asari said playfully, "I take it you missed waking up with me too."

"You think so?", Shepard laughed. "You're incredible. The best girlfriend I could hope to have."

"I am glad," Liara purred, kissing the base of the human's neck. "I would hate to think you found someone else to replace me during all those months we spent apart."

"Never," Shepard insisted in response to her teasing, guiding Liara's mouth to her own for a long kiss before she repeated, "Never." The asari curled up against her chest and the commander added mischievously, "You know, Liara, you're going to have to come with me and talk to the Council too. Somebody has to explain this device you found to them."

Liara grinned. "What is your point?"

"Perhaps," Shepard answered, kissing one of the tips of Liara's crest and eliciting a pleased murmur from her lover, "I should make sure you're in a good mood too."

Liara smile broadened at the thought but when she looked over at Shepard's clock, she groaned in mild disappointment. "We will have to be quick. It's getting late and we both need to shower."

"Well then why don't we shower together?"

Liara couldn't jump out of bed fast enough, practically dragging the Spectre along with her. Laughing at her lover's enthusiasm, Shepard headed into the tub and as Liara turned on the hot water, the commander wrapped her arms around her waist, whispering, "I love you, Liara T'Soni."

Liara bent her neck to kiss the human's arm. "I love you too, Shepard."

"I love the feel of your skin." The water started to wash over them and the Spectre began kissing her way along Liara's crest while her hands moved up to cup her breasts. She massaged them gently, her fingers playing over stiff blue nipples, as she continued, "I love how you respond to me." Liara's back arched and Shepard could feel her cock stiffening again, pressing against the soft swell of her lover's ass. "And I love that whatever happens, I can always depend on you to take care of me, to bring out the best in me, and," she added with a laugh, "To find prothean super-weapons to pull my ass out of the fire."

The human's fingers dropped between her legs, stroking along the edges of her sex and Liara whimpered at her touch. She had only planned on a blowjob for Shepard, but she forgot just how much pleasuring her commander excited her as well. Shepard seemed to remember though, her finger probing inside Liara's azure, her voice whispering huskily to her.

"God, Liara," she breathed, "I've barely touched you and you're already so wet for me." Her hand moved up to Liara's clit and stroked her, the mixture of the asari's own arousal and the water of the shower heavenly on her needy bud. "I still can't believe how much going down on me turns you on."

The asari cocked her head, letting Shepard kiss along her neck. "It's you, Shepard. I love every inch of you. I love making you feel that way."

Her cock twitched against Liara's ass at the asari's words. She had wanted to stretch this out a little longer, but her lover was right about the time, and besides, she could feel the Shadow Broker aching for her. Placing her hands on Liara's hips, she lifted the asari up slightly, groaning when her tip made contact with the wet entrance to her azure. She lowed her gently onto her shaft, but as soon as she was sheathed inside her beloved, Liara started rocking her hips back into her body, wanting all that Shepard could give.

Shepard took her hard and fast, keeping her strong arms wrapped firmly around the asari's waist for support as she thrust into her. They'd made love like this the last time they were together, but though her memories of that night had helped keep her going during those long months in detention, they couldn't compare to the real thing. Liara's azure gripped her so tightly and Shepard's every thrust provided heavenly friction along her length.

As Shepard fucked her, the asari's hand dropped between their legs, allowing her to rub both her own clit and the base of her lover's cock. "Goddess, Shepard," she managed in-between moans, "More." She loved the Spectre's power, her confidence. Even before Shepard's change, she had enjoyed it when her lover used a strap-on to take her, but knowing that the commander was feeling as much pleasure as she was made this even better. She angled her hips slightly, helping Shepard to hit the right spots inside of her, and when her cock dragged along the wall of Liara's azure, the asari felt the urge to meld start overtaking her. The human noticed it too, the pressure against her mind deeply familiar, and when Liara sensed the relaxing of Shepard's barriers, she knew she had permission.

Their thoughts merged, and instantly Shepard felt herself close to another climax. Knowing how much she turned the asari on was one thing, but feeling it for herself, sharing the aching need in Liara's body and the delight she took from each stroke was enough to drive her wild. She buried her face in Liara's shoulder, trying to stifle her own orgasm a little bit longer, but though it was a losing battle, there was no need. The meld was all that her beloved had required. The addition of Shepard's pleasure to her own coaxed a flood of wetness from her azure and when the human's pale hand joined her blue one on her clit, she came hard, squeezing again and again around the shaft deep inside of her.

Instants later, Shepard followed her, the pulsing of Liara's azure along with the sharing of her lover's climax more than enough to trigger her own. Only her exquisitely trained body kept her upright as she filled Liara with her release, holding the asari tight through their shared ecstasy.

The climax and meld ebbed swiftly together, Liara not trying to prolong it in light of the time, but as she felt Shepard slip out of her, she did groan slightly at the loss of fullness. Her regret didn't last long though as the Spectre spun her around and pressed a long kiss on her lips. "So," the asari asked her lover playfully, "Do you think we are ready to face the Council yet?"

"As long as we're together," Shepard purred, her hands sliding over skin made slick by the hot water, "I feel like we can face anything."

* * *

**Epilogue Part 1**

Samantha Traynor had seldom been less happy to have her brain return to the land of conscious thought than she was that morning. When she'd woken up yesterday she hadn't even been certain that the Reapers were real. The Collectors, sure; she'd been on Horizon when they attacked, but ancient machines that periodically exterminated all organic life in the galaxy sounded a little far-fetched to the communications specialist.

Now, not only had those "myths" come to life, Earth had fallen to them in a single day. She, meanwhile, had gone from working a nice, safe lab job to being stuck aboard a warship headed off God only knew where. Finally, just to add a little personal humiliation to the mix, she had learned that the VI whose voice she'd spent the last several weeks making inappropriate remarks about was really the ship's artificial intelligence, which meant that not only had she made a fool of herself, there was nowhere on the _Normandy_ for her to hide.

Just as she was finishing up sinking into a sea of self-pity, a female voice sounded through the crew quarters where, in lieu of a better alternative, she had crashed the night before. Samantha looked up from her new bunk to see a tall brunette with a lieutenant commander's uniform and the most gorgeous dark eyes the specialist could remember standing in the doorway.

"Listen up, soldiers," the woman started, her voice firm and confidant, "My name is Lt Commander Ashley Williams, and whatever your previous postings might have been, you are now assigned to the SSV _Normandy_ for the foreseeable future. I know a lot of you weren't combat personnel before this, but after what just happened back on Earth, we're all gonna have to be grunts for a while. Command Shepard will meet with you this afternoon to discuss your specific assignments in detail, but for now, if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them myself."

A short-haired blonde tech Sam knew from the _Normandy_ retrofit sat up in her bunk and asked nervously, "So, where are we going now anyway, ma'am?"

"The Citadel," she replied. "You should use the opportunity to pick up any supplies you're going to need because after that, we'll probably be flying into some kind of a war zone. Anything else? No? Good."

Ashley turned to leave and the room buzzed with a mixture of confusion, excitement, and fear. Sam was scared too, but in spite of her anxiety, she couldn't stop watching the departing officer. The specialist knew she should feel a little guilty about having her eyes glued to the woman's fantastically firm backside at a time like this, but if the world really was coming to an end, was a little gawking such a big deal?

* * *

**Epilogue Part 2**

Though the Illusive Man was not one to dwell over-much on his failures, even he had to admit that this particular operation could scarcely have gone worse. One of his top operatives was dead, a second was now in Alliance custody, Dr. Eva had been destroyed, and only a small portion of the data on this prothean device had been uploaded to Cerberus… It was a nearly unmitigated disaster and now that the asari archeologist had been reunited with Shepard, any hope of bringing the commander back under his control had been lost, probably for good.

He shrugged, taking a deep drag on his cigarette. What was done was done and though Shepard might be out of reach, the stakes were far too high for him to consider giving up entirely. With a touch of his hand dismissed the screen containing the final report on the Mars mission. "Persephone," he said coolly, summoning up his VI assistant, "Send notification to the Chimera cell. It's time to activate Project Mirage."

* * *

**And that's a wrap. Keep an eye out for the third and final installment in this series, Terminal Diagnosis, coming soon. It'll have more canon divergence, more smut, and a final showdown with Timmy. Thanks to everyone for reading, faving, and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed the story.**


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